


Holy Ground

by blasphemyincarnate



Series: When We Fall [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Angelic Families, Anna is a Milton because her mom married out of the family and she took her dad’s last name, Death, Despair, Erelah, F/F, Genderfluid!Gabriel, Ghost AUs, Mourning, Murder, Other, Reapers, Sadness, Serial Killer, ghost - Freeform, sibling relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 17:44:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15801483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blasphemyincarnate/pseuds/blasphemyincarnate
Summary: And darling, it was good never looking down,And right there where we stood was holy ground.





	Holy Ground

Anna Milton doesn’t remember dying.

She remembers what came before and what came after.

Before - a man with yellow eyes waiting for her when she got home after school. A man with yellow eyes and a knife that was practically glowing, it was so clean.

(And then she was stabbed and the knife went through her lung before the man pulled it out and left with a goddamned  _smile_ like he was proud of himself-)

She doesn’t remember slowly bleeding out (or if she was bleeding out or suffocating, but hey, details, right?)

She does remember the silence that came afterwards.

When she sat up and could see  _through_ herself and looked down and tried to scream because “oh shit that’s my body right there”.

(Except she couldn’t scream. For whatever reason. Maybe ghosts don’t have vocal cords.)

And the silence, oh  _God_ , the silence.

The only thing she could hear for the longest time was her own blood in her ears (which doesn’t make sense because if ghosts don’t have vocal chords they don’t have blood either) and the beating of a heart she shouldn’t have.

But then her older cousin came home and she could still hear Gabriel’s  _scream_ echoing through the house when he stared down at her sixteen year old body.

And maybe his scream cut something out of her or maybe it just shocked her enough, but the blood and the beating stopped.

”Gabriel, Gabriel,  _wait_ ,  _can’t you see m_ _e_?” She remembers crying out, reaching for him with ghostly fingers. “Gabby,  _no!_ ”

(He shivered when her fingers just passed through him but otherwise didn’t react, only numbly picking up his phone and saying “help”)

Anna Milton went to her own funeral.

She stood by the coffin and stared at her body and wished she could offer her siblings and cousins comfort. 

It almost felt like the whole Erelah family had showed up which was ridiculous because there were probably far more extended cousins and most of them hated her for the tattoos and the bad music and dating Ruby anyways.

Oh God,  _Ruby._

Anna’s girlfriend sat in the front row, next to Gabriel. She was still in her school uniform, from that damned Catholic school, with the ugly plaid skirt and the burgundy socks.

Anna hated that uniform.

Anna hated being dead.

She tried to comfort little Castiel who was only 13 and Gabriel whose 17th birthday had been a week ago and Ruby who stared at her body and ran out halfway through.

(They only ever reacted to the cold sweeping through their bones.)

One boy saw her. That, she remembers.

One little boy who died in a car crash a week later.

”I don’t know why you are here, Anna Milton. But I believe you could save lives,” said the woman who appeared next to her while at the little boy’s funeral.

”Who are you?” Anna asked her, not even turning to look. 

“My name is Tessa. I’ve been given orders not to reap you. Good luck.”

(The woman was gone with more questions than answers.)

Anna remained a ghost for another ten years before anything interesting happened.

(She’d saved a few lives - learned how to move things in fits of passion, saved the life of an elderly couple who were about to be mugged, the life of another little boy who was about to be kidnapped, and she failed to save the life of the older girl who was just her age and fell off the roof of the school.)

(They called it a suicide.)

(They were wrong.)

(Her killer walks free.)

But when she should’ve been 26, Megara Masters was killed by her father and Anna had a friend for the first time in ages.

(After that, they came along fairly quickly. Jo Harvelle, who died seven years earlier. A girl named Abby from the next town over who’d given Azazel a run for his money before he finally killed her. And Ruby,  _God_ , Ruby.)

”I missed you,” the brunette whispers quietly while they watch Meg’s funeral together. 

(They both cry when Katelyn opens her letter.)

”I did too,” Anna says softly in return.

Anna watches her best friend and cousin Gabriel grow old, watches the girl find someone who can accept how quickly she can change, watches Castiel learn what moving on means, watches him fall in love with Dean Winchester, watches her family rise and fall and twist and turn. 

(Katelyn Masters and Kristina Chambers won’t know it, but their first kiss wasn’t as private as they thought it was and five dead girls cheered them on.)

(Abby runs away once - but she’s back in a year, staring at Anna and asking how she  _survived_ for ten years.)

(“That’s the thing,” Anna jokes. “I didn’t.”)

(“I was dead.”)

Once, Balthazar sees her and Anna  _panics_ and screams “You’re going to die!” at him, which, in hindsight, wasn’t the best idea.

(Later he wakes up and still sees her and Anna calms down enough to explain what she meant and he makes a little “oh” sound and shrugs, says, “I’ve you got you as my guardian angel though, right?”)

(“Of course,” she says.)

(A week later, he narrowly avoids drowning and doesn’t see Anna again for another twenty years.)

Tessa comes back once.

”Why are we still here?” Anna whispers to her, forever sixteen.

”God’s work, I suppose. I’m not sure. Maybe you’ll become a Reaper one day.”

Anna hopes not.

(Anna becomes one anyways.)

Anna Milton watches her friends all take their turns at flirting with Death, watches them die, leads them to the next life.

(Eventually she sends Abby and Jo on their ways too, but Ruby refuses to leave her side.)

(Meg left a long time ago, content to follow her sister. Anna doesn’t see her for another fifty years when she’s also become a Reaper and comes back to help Cas move on.)

Anna Milton doesn’t remember dying, but she remembers the eternity afterwards.

**Author's Note:**

> idk


End file.
